Toy speedometer



. 'Jul 2s,1959

R. l -l. BAIR TOY SPEEDOMETER' 2 Sheets-Shae. 1

mm Jun; 22-. 1956 INVENTOR RICHARD H. BAIR I ammwm K301 mum mu =i r ATTORNEY July 28,1959 R. H. BAQIR 2,396,703 v TOY SPEEDOMETER Filad June 22, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 MILES PER mR 'INVENTOR l4 Y RICHARD mama ATTORNEY United States PatentC TOY SPEEDOMETER Richard H. Bair, Camp Hill, Pa., assignor to The 'Hubley Manufacturing Company, Lancaster, Pa.

Application June 22, 1956, Serial No. 593,186

SClaims; (Cl. 161-18) This invention relates to toy speedometers primarily.

for use by children in checking the approximate speed of automobiles. The invention may find use, however,

with trafiic enforcement ofiiccrs who wish to check the:

speed of a vehicle on a highway from a distant point.

The primary object of this invention is. to provide a Patented July 28, 1959 At the. rearward end of tube 1 an eyepiece 9 is pro vided, being secured to thetube by a tight friction fit" the end of tube 2.

novel toy for use by children playing the partof a traffic.

policeman in checking the speed of vehicles.

A more specific object of this invention is to provide,

a toy for use by children which is inexpensive to produce, and yet is reasonably accurate in determining the speed of vehicles.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel, inexpensive combination of an hour glass with a sighting device to enable children playing the part of traffic policemen to determine with reasonable accuracy, the speed of automobiles on the highways.

With the foregoingfand other objects inrview, the invention resides in the following specification and ap pended claims, certain embodiments and details of construction of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is a view in sideelevation of the toy speedometer constituting the invention.

Figure 2 is an end view in partial section taken along the lines 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an end view in partial section taken along the lines 33 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a partial end view of the sighting end of the speedometer of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an end view in partial section similar to Figure 2, but illustrating the hour glass timing device of the speedometer in operative condition.

Figure 6 is a partial side view in section of the hour glass timing device taken along the lines 66 of Figune 2.

Figure 7 is an end view in partial section similar to Figure 2 but illustrating the condition of the hour glass timing device after completion of the operation illus trated in Figure 5.

Figure 8 is a partial side view in section of the sight ing end of the speedometer as illustrated in Figure 4, and

Figure 9 is a partial view in sectioned side elevation of the operating and eyepiece end of the speedometer illustrated in Figure 1. V

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the speedometer constituting the invention includes a sighting tube 1 and an hour glass timing device 2 mounted thereon by means of a tight friction fit or other suitable means. Centrally disposed on the tube 1 is a pistol grip type handle 3, the handle being held in place on the tube by a tight friction fit or other suitable means.

At the forward end of tube 2 isa sighting piece 4 as best shown in Figures 4 and 8. The sighting piece 4 includes a cap 5 with a bore 6 interrupted by an inner peripheral ledge 7. The cap 5 fits over the end of tube 1 in a tight friction fit relationship, and encases a sighting glass 8 between the ledge 7 and the end of tube '1.

The hour glass timing device 2 essentially comprises a stationary casing 13, mounted at its hub 14 on tube 1 by a tightfriction fit or other suitable means, and a rotatabledisc 15 freely, but snugly, mounted on tube 1 and I encompassed by the peripheral flange 16 of the casing. 13.

The casing 13 is provided with a slot 17 of arcuate shape. The disklS is provided with a projecting operating lever or handle 18 which in. assembly of the device projects.

a substantial distance through the slot 17.

A coil spring 19 surrounds the tube 1 between the eye'- piece 9 and the timing device 2. One end of spring 19 is received in a; hole 20' ineyepiece 9. The other end of spring 19'is received in hole 21 in disc 15. It is thus obvious that by moving the handle 18'the disc 15 may be moved against the biasing action of spring 19through' the length of slot'17 or about degrees. The spring 19 normally maintains the disc 15 in the position shown inFigures 2 and 7.

The disc 15 is provided with a built-in hourglass timer and sight calculator. 22. Referring particularly to Figures 2, 6 and 9, it will be noted that the disc is recessed at the upper portion thereof to provide two chambers 23 and 24 separated by a partition 25 with a relatively small connecting passage 26 therein. The chamber 23 is directly connected to the calibrated calculating recess 27 which has a constantly decreasing depth from top to bottom as viewed in-Figure'6. The surface of the disc 15, adjacent the recess 27, is graduated in miles per hour. A quantity of sand adequate to at least fill the recess 27 is deposited in chamber 24 and. this chamber, together with chamber 23 and recess 27, is hermetically sealed by a transparent plastic cover-plate 28.

In operation, the speedometer is held against one eye of the operator who sights a vehicle some distance down a highway as it approaches. When the vehicle substantially fills the inner etched square 29 on the sighting glass 8 the operator pulls the handle 18 with his free bend to the full limit permitted by slot 17. This operation will cause the disc 15 to move from the position of Figure 2 to the position of Figure 5, and sand will move through the passage 26 from chamber 24 to chamber 23. As soon as the vehicle has come close enough to the operator to substantially fill the outer spaced square 30 of sighting glass 8, the handle 18 is released and the spring 19 will return the disc 15 to its original position. Sand, which was received in chamber 23, will drop into recess 27 and the height thereof will indicate with substantial accuracy the speed at which the vehicle being sighted is traveling. The markings on the glass 8 need not be square, but may consist of two sets of evenly spaced lines.

The recess 27 in disc 15 is tapered in depth to obtain linearity in marking the miles per hour graduations on disc 15.

It is not essential, in sighting a vehicle, that the 0perator stand on the highway, but merely adjacent to it. Thus, a child on the front porch of a home adjacent a highway may operate the speedometer in comparative safety.

It also is not essential that in operation the handle be operated when the vehicle sighted fills the inner square 29 and. released when it fills the outer square 30. Actually, the most accurate operation is determined 'by sighting the front wheels of the vehicle as they touch first the sides of the inner square 29 and then the sides of the,

other square 30. The time lapse between the fulfillment of these two conditions will determine the amount of accuratetoy for children playing the part of traflic policemen. It is also obvious that the structure of the speed; W t i ometerfis adaptable to many modifications" well thescope of the claims.

I claim: 2 1. A timing device for a toy speedometer comprising a sighting tube, an eyepiece mounted on one end of the tube, a sighting glass having spaced markings thereon mounted on the other endof the tube, a casing'mounted on said sighting tube between the ends thereof, a disc carried within said casing for rotary movement relative to the tube, said casing being provided with an arcuate slot and said disc being provided with a handle projecting through the casing slot, 3. spring mounted about said tube and secured at one end to the' eye piece and at its other end to the disc,and an hour glass timing and calculating means carried by said disc, the said sighting glass markings being correlated with the timing and calculating means to indicate in operation the speed vof a moving vehicle.

2. The invention according to claim 1 in which the hour glass timing and calculating device is composed of a plurality of connected sealed chambers in the disc with aquantity of sand therein. v I

3. A timing device for toy speedometers, including a sighting tube having an eye piece and a sighting piece having objective framing means, said eye piece and sight ing piece each being fixed to the tube, said timing device comprising means mounted on the tube and angularly movable relative thereto, hour glass means carried by said device and including communicating storage and sand holding receiving chambers, the latter having a gauging recess and provided at one edge with a scale, a spring for maintaining the timing device in normal position wherein sand is in the sand storage chamber, and means for angularly moving the timing device as the vehicle is picked up by the objective framing means to cause the sand to move from the storage chamber to the receiving chamber and then into the recess.

4. A timing device for toy speedometers, including, a sighting tube having an eye piece and a sighting piece provided with objective framing means, said eye piece and sighting piece each being fixed to the barrel, said timing device comprising, a casing on the tube and fixed relative thereto, said casing having a slot, a disc rotatable in the casing and having communicating sand storage and receiving chambers, one of said dharn'bers communi cating with an elongated recess whose bottom wall is tapered to progressively reduce the volume of the recess toward its closed end, a scale at one edge of the recess, a spring for biasing the disc to normal position, a handle on the disc slidable in the slot of the casing to move the disc against the tension of said spring, whereby, when the vehicle is picked up by the objective framing means the handle is moved to tilt the disc and cause sand to move from the storage chamber to the holding chamber,

and when finger pressure on thehandle is released the disc will be returned to normal position by said spring and sand will fall from said holding chamber into the recess to give the desired reading. i

5. A timing device for toy speedometers including, in combination, a sighting tube, an eyepiece mounted on one end of the tube, a sighting glass having spaced markings thereon and mounted on the other end of'the tube,

said timing device comprising an hourglass-timing and calculating means co-axial with the axis of the tube and mounted thereon between the eyepiece and the sighting glass for angular'movement relative to the axis of the tube, the sighting glass markings co-related with the timing and calculating means to indicate the speed of a moving vehicle.

References Cited in the fileof this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,261,915 Ferdon Apr. 9, 1918 1,281,944 Gray Oct. 15, 1918 1,605,884- Wilkinson Nov. 2, 1926 1,694,059 Denny Dec. 4, 1928 

